In August 2018, Health Translation SA disseminated a survey to our partner organisations, on behalf of the Australian Health Research Alliance (AHRA), to measure the extent and nature of community and consumer involvement (CCI) in health and medical research.
Responses were received from 868 people across Australia including 490 researchers, 145 health professionals and 233 consumer and community members. The survey results have now been summarised in an Australia-wide Audit Report.
The findings of the survey, along with the outcomes of a literature review and national workshop, have informed four priority consumer and community involvement projects that will be led by AHRA across the next two years including:
- Development of minimum standards for good practice in CCI in translational research in consultation with other national bodies.
- Creating a model for sharing existing resources and expertise to support CCI in translational research.
- Development of research and evaluation projects to identify how to effective increase CCI involvement in health and medical research, how to measure the impact of CCI and how to measure the efficacy of existing CCI tools and resources.
- Consolidate formal alliances with leading international agencies promoting CCI.
HTSA remains committed to improving the approach to, and engagement of, consumers and the community in health and medical research. HTSA’s Consumer Engagement Senior Project Officer will directly support work required under the four priority actions and help facilitate involvement of local experts across HTSA partner organisations.
